Saudi sees 70% growth in foreign business licenses

Bloomberg

The number of new licenses approved for foreign businesses in Saudi Arabia rose by 70 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority.
Applications from British and Chinese companies drove the increase, rising by 86 percent and 71 percent, respectively, Ibrahim Al Omar, governor of Sagia, as the kingdom’s investment-promotion body is known, said in an interview. The fastest-growing industries were education and info- rmation and communications te-chnology, Al Omar said. The year-on-year growth in foreign licen- ses follows Saudi efforts to remove restrictions on international investments. The FDI more than doubled last year to $3 billion.
Al Omar said. “We’ve seen a good increase in the number of companies looking to operate in Saudi Arabia, and in the number of industries that they are looking to invest in.”
Saudi Arabia seeks foreign investment to help diversify the economy away from oil. Sagia is working with the World Bank to improve its ranking on the ease-of-doing-business index, where it currently ranks 92nd among 190 countries.

Saudi retailer seeks $836m from IPO
Bloomberg

Fawaz Alhokair Group, the Saudi retailer that owns the franchise for brands like Banana Republic and Zara, is seeking to raise 3.1 billion riyals ($836 million) from selling shares in its malls unit. It would be the country’s largest IPO since 2014.
Arabian Centres Co set the price range of the IPO at 26 riyals to 33 riyals, valuing it at 15.7 billion riyals. The company operates 19 shopping malls in the kingdom.
Fawaz Alhokair is offering the shares under Regulation S and Rule 144A of the US Securities Act, the first company in Saudi Arabia to do so. More than 108 million people visited Arabian Centres’ malls in the 2018 fiscal year, according to the offering prospectus.